$11,000 Data Bill From AT&T

[Joe]

Adam Savage, one of the mighty busters of myths on The Discovery Channel's Mythbusters show, is freaking out on Twitter right now. The target of his rage? AT&T (NYSE: T), for slapping him with an $11,000 bill after he surfed the Web in Canada for a few hours.

This has happened before and it will surely happen again. If Tweets are to be believed, Adam apparently took a laptop modem with him on a recent trip to Canada. While there, he claims he spent several hours surfing the Web. Upon his return, he was hit with an $11,000 bill in data roaming fees.

Here is the public timeline of his tweets:

Sorry, bit of explanation: device in question wasn't my phone, it was the AT&T usb connect Mercury modem.
And I got the "data is charged at .015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb". About to try to explain the difference to them. Sigh.
They're claiming I uploaded/downloaded 9 million kilobytes (9 gigs) while in Canada. Frakking impossible.
@--- you read it right. $11,000.00
Did I mention they've turned off my phone until I pay? #attsucks
Almost forgot: Hey AT&T! I will fight this bulls--t.
Text messaging fees are stupid robbery? (they are), AT&T is attempting to charge me 11k for a few hours of web surfing in Canada. Pls RT!
I thought it was sort of funny to see a celebrity experiencing the same thing that regular unwitting users do (no offense, Adam!), so I re-tweeted (re-posted) his message. A few minutes later, an AT&T spokesperson emailed me and said, "We're helping that guy out you just RTed. Do you know him?" Well, AT&T, I only know him in so much as the fact that he's a celebrity and I watch his show on television every week. He likes to blow things up, and I like to watch him blow things up.

Adam's Twitter page is: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://twitter.com/donttrythis">http://twitter.com/donttrythis</a><!-- m -->

[Hondo]

Man I turn off everything but the phone when I travel out of the country for that very reason.

[Pete Nice]

Man I turn off everything but the phone when I travel out of the country for that very reason.

When I go to Russia, I am going to have Verizon turn off Texts, emails and the web on my blackberry until I get back. I will keep the phone on as I have a decent international plan and I will use blackberry messenger, since it is free anywhere anytime.

I am going to take my aircard with me just in case, but I think I will check with verizon on if it works outside the US and if so how much they will charge me.

[Joe]

Man I turn off everything but the phone when I travel out of the country for that very reason.

When I go to Russia, I am going to have Verizon turn off Texts, emails and the web on my blackberry until I get back. I will keep the phone on as I have a decent international plan and I will use blackberry messenger, since it is free anywhere anytime.

I am going to take my aircard with me just in case, but I think I will check with verizon on if it works outside the US and if so how much they will charge me.

I know with AT&T you can call them and tell them you want the plan that covers you when you leave the country. I think it's like $5 a month more. You can remove it from your plan the following month. Verizon has to have the same type of thing.